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Boris Claims Lockdown Is Working Despite Infections Peaking Before It Began

“The thing I just did last is definitely what made the thing happening now happen… if it’s good, that is, otherwise, it’s got nothing to do with me, obviously.”

Do the facts matter anymore, or is it just about spinning a narrative that justifies politicians’ latest radical intervention? The Prime Minister has claimed the fall in infections across England is all thanks to his latest school-closing, enforcement-heavy, virus-busting quarantine, despite the data showing the decline was already underway before the third lockdown was imposed. The Mail tries to bring some facts to bear on the matter.

Despite the latest huge death toll, Mr Johnson sounded a notably optimistic tone about the emerging impact of the restrictions. He said the country was “now starting to see the beginnings of some signs” that the crackdown was having an effect in parts of the country, while stressing it was “early days” and urged people to “keep their discipline”.

MailOnline analysis suggests the outbreak in England may have started slowing before the blanket lockdown on January 4th, with infection numbers peaking in the worst-hit regions at the start of the year. The tide appears to have turned in parts of the country experiencing the worst outbreaks – London, the South East and the East of England – in the first week of 2021, with cases coming down since then. 

Coronavirus hospital admissions have also started to fall in London and the South East, although the numbers of patients are still rising on wards after surging above the peaks recorded in the first wave.

The figures bolster claims that Tier 4 – which kept schools open – thwarted the spread of the super-infectious mutant strain of the virus. But it appears the measure did not drive down infections fast enough for ministers, who instead opted for further curbs to daily life.

Here’s the latest graph from the ZOE Covid Symptom Study App showing infections peaking at the start of the year.

Stop Press: Nic Sturge-On has brought in even more restrictions in Scotland. Heed well, England – Boris will soon be copying her. From the BBC:

Only shops selling essential items – such as clothing, footwear, baby equipment, homeware and books – will be allowed to offer click and collect.

Collections must also be outdoors, with appointments staggered to avoid queuing.

And takeaways can no longer allow customers indoors, and must instead operate from a hatch or doorway.

Yet according to the ZOE App Scotland infections appear to have peaked in the middle of last week.

Someone should tell Nicola.

Stop Press 2: Recovery carried out a Twitter poll on the BBC’s coverage of the crisis and got an impressive 20,336 responses. The results make for grim reading for the Beeb.

How to Respond to a GP Survey…

When Lockdown Sceptics reader Tracy van den Broek’s GP surgery sent her their patient survey, it’s probably safe to say they weren’t prepared for the robust response they got back. Here’s what she sent them instead of the completed questionnaire.

Thank you for sending the questionnaire. I see the questions are framed in such a way that you will be able to give information to the Government and media which will be used to assure “the public” that all is well at the GP surgery level for most people.  

I am appalled by the fact that the NHS has become our “master” in the past year – and has become essentially a Covid-only service for much of the year. The distortions of the situation shown on the BBC have implied that insufficient capacity for annual seasonal demand is a new thing. Because of my connection with the hospital as a volunteer on the chaplaincy team for the past 10 years I happen to know that treating patients in the corridors and bed shortage are annual events.

That the measures designed to “protect the NHS” are actually causing incalculable misery amongst carers, disabled people, dementia sufferers, and even otherwise healthy widows and others who live alone, is entirely overlooked.

That in order to “protect the NHS” normal development of children of all ages is distorted is reprehensible. We are raising a generation who will see themselves and others as a bio-hazard. The thwarting of normal social development of teenagers (raising suicidal ideation amongst countless individuals) is nothing short of a disaster – the consequences of these measure will be evident in the lives of this generation long after most SAGE scientists are dead.

I am a carer for my 15 year-old with Down’s Syndrome. All our normal social events have been denied us, putting us under immense psychological pressure – and we are by no means unique. Amongst my wide circle of friends up and down the country – and random people I have engaged in conversation – I only know of one person under 80 who has died of Covid (and he had chronic heart-disease and was morbidly obese). I know fewer than 10 people who have had Covid – but they all recovered.

The NHS, in its inception, was designed to serve people. As a master it is tyrannical (controlling and coercive) and has devastated our nation in too many ways to calculate. We are all the subjects of a huge psychological experiment and we didn’t give our informed consent. This has to be illegal and I hope that someone will show it to be so in due course.

I’m similarly unimpressed with my GP surgery – though as I stood in the airlock outside the empty waiting room in November, sobbing, the receptionist took pity on me and helped by getting a prescription for anti-depressants (which I’d requested a month earlier) signed by the GP who was sitting in his office somewhere in the building.

It all makes me more determined to do my best to take care of my own health through diet/exercise and alternative measures than follow the diktats of the pharmaceutical industry and its minions.

I most certainly do not have sufficient faith in this system to roll up my sleeve and become a guinea pig for a product which hasn’t passed through the normal, lengthy safety tests, and where the suppliers are indemnified.

Tracy isn’t having a good week. She adds:

Having been marched out of Costco last week (wearing my lanyard and in the company of my distressed 15 year-old daughter) because I wasn’t wearing a mask, I’m going to write to them too. I was told by the employee that it doesn’t matter that there is “exemption” allowed out there in the rest of the country, this was a privately owned company and this was their policy. I wondered whether I was on American territory when I was in there – and whether if they chose to require shoppers to stand on their heads, that would also be similarly enforceable.

What a China-style Zero Covid Strategy Would Really Mean

A Lockdown Sceptics reader has written to us deeply concerned about the adulation and copying of China’s handling of the coronavirus by Western Governments. He should know. He has lived in China on and off since 2002 and owns a home and company there. While he has been shut out of the country since the start of the crisis, he is frequently in touch with people there and has a good idea what it is like right now.

Some politicians and journalists like to hold China up as a success story of the handling of the coronavirus crisis. They point to its low reported deaths, its almost non-existent cases and the impression that life is seemingly back to normal.

That is an incomplete picture. Life in China is not normal and the fight against Covid is not over by a long way. 

The reality is that life in China has changed dramatically since the start of the coronavirus crisis, in three very significant ways.

1. Surveillance. Prior to the crisis, the population could move around freely without restriction. Now, you cannot enter most major public places like a station, an airport, a mall or any government building, without scanning a tracking app on your phone that clears you for entry with a green smiley face. Most residential compounds also require scanning to enter. So after you leave your home, you need to pass a scan to come back in.

This surveillance has been added to the financial surveillance that has been in place for the last few years. Every money transaction takes place with one of the two giant payment platforms, WePay or Alipay, and is linked to your ID number which the government tracks. 

So the surveillance of the population is now total and absolute. The government knows everything that everyone is doing. 

2. Face masks. Contrary to beliefs in the west, prior to the coronavirus crisis face masks were virtually non-existent. The few people that did wear them might have done so on bad pollution days and even then it would have been a rare sight. Masks are now ubiquitous. There is supposedly no coronavirus in China but you need to wear a mask in airports, stations, malls, large public gatherings, taxis and all government buildings.

3. Closed borders. China has for all intents and purposes shut its borders and closed itself from the world indefinitely. Permits to enter China are hard to obtain. For those who obtain one, on arrival they must pass a quarantine of three weeks in isolation in a government assigned hotel room.

Like every nation that has opted for a Zero Covid approach, China’s fight against Covid isn’t over by reaching zero cases. With coronavirus continuing to spread to hundreds of millions around the world, China’s fight to keep the virus away is ongoing, relentless and, in the absence of a vaccine that provides 100% immunity, permanent.

Even with closed borders, strict entry protocols and the most far-reaching surveillance on the planet, outbreaks occur from time to time at which point entire cities are severely locked down, and their entire populations forced to pass a test.

So when politicians fantasise about Zero Covid and try to promote it pointing to China’s success they should be clear, honest and open about what it would really mean.

It would mean closing borders indefinitely, putting in place a system of surveillance of the population and executing severe targeted lockdowns and compulsory testing at the first sign of an infection in the community. It would also probably mean on-going wearing of masks in numerous settings like public transport or any large gatherings of crowds.

Zero Covid is not a strategy for eliminating Covid, it is a plan to reorganise society permanently in the image created by the Chinese Communist Party.

More on Pre-Existing Immunity

The failure of epidemiological models such as Neil Ferguson’s to incorporate pre-existing immunity to SARS-CoV-2 was one of the two basic errors Dr Mike Yeadon identified in SAGE’s advice throughout the pandemic. A new rapid response has now appeared in the BMJ by a researcher at Umea University in Sweden, Rachel F. Nicoll, to highlight further recent findings on this important topic.

Since Peter Doshi’s excellent feature in the BMJ in September, entitled “COVID-19: Do many people have pre-existing immunity?“, further studies on unexposed subjects have now been undertaken. Although all studies so far are small, they indicate that a significant proportion of individuals globally entered the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic with some pre-existing immunity. This is true of studies of IgG antibodies, memory B cells and T cells.

The pre-existing immunity makes a difference to clinical outcomes.

Patients with a previously detected human coronavirus had less severe COVID-19; despite a similar rate of infection, hospitalisation and viral burden, the milder disease seemed to be due to more subdued inflammatory responses, leading to lower ICU admission and death.

As Peter Doshi points out, the WHO and CDC acknowledged the existence of pre-existing immunity to the 2009 swine flu epidemic but then ignored the evidence 11 years later. Furthermore, cross-reactive immunity to influenza strains has been modelled to be a critical influencer of susceptibility to newly emerging, potentially pandemic, influenza strains.

Epidemiologists have been calling SARS-CoV-2 a ‘novel virus’, implying no pre-existing immunity. Nevertheless, it is clear that some considerable pre-existing immunity is present but has not been incorporated into the modelling. Furthermore, Government policy decisions are being made based on the number of positive PCR tests (indicating the presence of a viral RNA fragment rather than current infection) instead of investigating the proportion of the population that has developed antibody, B cell or T cell immunity.

Worth reading in full.

Don’t Bet On It

While bookies are famed for giving you odds on any outcome you can imagine, it seems when it comes to Covid some things are out of play, as one Lockdown Sceptics reader discovered.

I am not a betting man by nature but prior to the third lockdown the bookies were one of the few places of entertainment still open to the public. So on Christmas Eve I decided to amuse myself by placing a bet.

Paddy Power have a reputation of being able to give odds on anything you care to bet on so I wandered into one of their Glasgow branches, approached the counter and said that I wanted to place the following bet:

“I bet that 10 years from today Boris Johnson, Mark Drakeford and Nicola Sturgeon will have been sent to jail for the restrictions and other actions they took to impose lockdown.”

Apparently this was something of a deviation from the usual bets placed in the establishment and the guy and girl behind the counter were intrigued to know more (“what the f**k’s that all about?” as the girl put it).

I explained that two or three years from now very few people in the country will personally know someone that died of COVID-19 in the pandemic but that absolutely everyone will know someone who was financially ruined, committed suicide, developed mental health problems or died of cancer or other survivable illnesses that were not diagnosed or treated due to the lockdown restrictions.

By that time there will have been a full-scale enquiry. Rather than the outcome politicians are expecting at the moment (that the lockdown should have been earlier, harder, longer) the enquiry will show that the lockdown failed in its delusional objective of preventing the spread of an airborne respiratory virus and inflicted devastating economic and physical and mental health damage on the population that ultimately killed more people than COVID-19.

On the subject of Covid deaths the enquiry will also find that the tens of thousands of people claimed to have died “with Covid” is an outrageous distortion of the actual number of people whose deaths were genuinely due to the virus which will be a fraction of the Project Fear number being bandied about at present.

The enquiry will conclude that the real disaster in terms of lives and human misery was not COVID-19 but lockdown.

Then the blame begins.

Who is to blame for the coronavirus? Was it an act of God? A wet market culinary adventure too far? A bad day at the office for a Wuhan lab technician? We may never know.

Who is to blame for lockdown? Easy. Politicians. (And those “expert” SAGE members and broadcast media hacks but they are likely to wriggle off the hook. Not so the politicians – for a start people hate them already.)

The media will switch effortlessly from tear jerking “Covidiots Killed my Granny” stories to “Lockdown Let My Angel Boy Die of Cancer” front pages. People will be angry. People will want revenge. The clamour will grow. The process will be put in place.

The Paddy Power staff were very receptive to this reasoning but said they would have to phone “head office down south” to get the odds and that I should come back in an hour or so. So off I went for a wander round the shops that were open (normally I would have gone for a pint but hey, cretins).

When I returned the guy behind the counter looked up but seeing me his face fell. He said he thought it was a fun bet and he really wanted to know what odds it would get but that he had been told on the phone by his superiors that they “were not allowed to take any coronavirus related bets”.

So there you have it. Covid restrictions extend to Covid bets. I may not be able to put my money where my mouth is but in predicting that the lockdown criminals will end up behind bars I think I have picked a winner. Time will tell.

Postcard From Japan

Lockdown Sceptics reader Philip Patrick has written to us from Japan to say that Covidmania has begun to grip the country and push it towards the lockdown precipice despite the low death toll to date.

Japan is often cited as a Covid success story. Officially we are at 4,100 deaths now, which given a population of 126 million and densely packed cities, is, on the face of it, remarkable. There has been endless speculation as to why we’ve got off so lightly, with my favourite being the wacky idea that the lack of sibilant sounds in the language means less saliva is transferred during conversation. But it’s the more robust overall health, especially of seniors, and possible greater immunity from prior exposure to other Corona viruses that are the most plausible explanations.

If visitors were allowed into the country, they would probably be surprised by how normally life seems to be continuing. There is no heavy-handed police enforcement of a bewildering array of ever-changing micro-regulations, and no signs of panic. Schools are operating as normal, and universities, most of them, going back to face-to-face tuition from next term. Masks, fetishised by the Japanese at the best of times, are ubiquitous and de rigueur, but only a few of the bigger department stores such as Isetan (the Japanese Harrods) insist on them, and the one time I forgot I was reminded with such exquisite gentleness it was almost charming.

However, all of the above good news could be caveated with that very useful Japanese phrase ‘toriaezu’ (for the time being).

For, just as in the UK, there is a steady drumbeat of despair from the media, with a daily fusillade of uncontextualised statistics, and reports of hospitals on the brink, always on the brink, of being overwhelmed. The media are shrieking about the ‘case’ numbers with a sort of demented zeal (NHK is exactly the same as the BBC in its coverage) and there is no reporting of lockdown scepticism – which does exist. A few on-the-make politicians are trying their best to scare everyone – most prominently Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike, whose daily gloom laden briefings are very similar to those of Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.

Worth reading in full.

Common Challenges Impeding Debate

A Lockdown Sceptics reader – a PhD student in Australia – has sent us a list of the ways public debate over COVID-19 and lockdowns often generate more heat than light.

  • The statement used frequently to silence questions – that there is “no evidence to support xyz” – is disingenuous, nor is this actually a rebuttal of a question. As researchers know, the absence of evidence does not prove the evidence of absence.
  • ‘Cherry picking’ data (only using data that supports pre-determined conclusions) is another frequent issue and one of the more insidious methods of skewing findings or debates while appearing reasonable at first glance.
  • Another tactic, playing the person not the issue – through labels of ‘Covid-denier’, ‘conspiracy-theorist’ or ‘anti-vaxxer’ if a person diverges from the ‘official’ line or asks questions – serves no one except authoritarian bullies and their side-kicks. It belongs with cancel culture and does not allow for questions to be raised (however well- or ill-informed), soundly debated, and concerns either validated or laid to rest rationally.
  • That a ‘fact’ or ‘view’ has come from an authority should never place it above debate and discussion, as all researchers know. Indeed, authorities can (and have historically) sometimes been wrong, ‘got at’ or otherwise become unreliable. ‘Official’ does not automatically equal ‘reliable’, valid or true.
  • By extension, so-called ‘fact-check’ (e.g. provided by major media sources including AP and Reuters) undertaken through appeal to official sources, or to experts who fail to substantiate their opinions, or through appeal to consensus, or other media reports, is inappropriate and substandard. Irrespective of whether it is an attempt at socially-responsible reporting, such methods of fact-checking fail miserably to meet the well-established academic standards of inquiry and discussion, crucial to informed discussion and arriving at valid findings.
  • It is only through considering conflicting, knowledgeable and substantiated viewpoints from an objective, informed, unimpassioned perspective that we can hope to arrive at a worthwhile level of understanding. Without such discussion, statements like ‘following the science’ are not merely a nonsense, they’re misleading and dangerous.
  • None of this would matter if, and this is the point, much of the mainstream media had not effectively positioned itself as an authority competent to judge the content, rather than engaging in investigating and reporting on the debates raging (and I do mean raging) among scientists over COVID-19.
  • Furthermore, it is not necessarily that data or facts should be questioned (though often they should) but rather the interpretation should always be questioned.

Update From the Retired Detective Jailed For Painting a Pub

An English pub – shortly only to be found in museums

Paul (not his real name), the retired detective jailed and fined for painting a pub in July, has been back in touch with an update on his fine.

You previously published an item about my Covid arrest for painting the walls of a pub.

The incident occurred on July 3rd and the police issued a fixed penalty notice on October 3rd.

I refused to pay the fine.

The next step should have been for the police to lay information before a court so a summons could be issued and the matter proceed to a court hearing.

Well, what happened next?

You may be aware that there is a “limitation on proceedings” of six months for “summary” offences heard in the magistrates court.

The police let the time limit expire to prevent the case reaching court. The “fine” is therefore void.

How many more of these “fines” have been “disappeared” in this fashion?

With 45,000 lockdown fines reported now to have been issued by the police, how many others have gone (or will go) the same way?

The Free Speech Union is Hiring

The Free Speech Union

The Free Speech Union, founded by Toby last year, is looking for a Website and IT Manager. Contract: 80-100%. Salary: up to £42,000 (pro rated). More info here.

Round-up

Theme Tunes Suggested by Readers

Seven today: “Policy of Truth” by Depeche Mode, “Everything But The Truth” by Lucinda Williams, “When Will We All Be Free?” By Karan Casey, “You can’t do that” by The Beatles, “Tricked and trapped” by The Chairman of the Board, “There Are Bad Times Just Around The Corner” by Noel Coward and “The New Normals” by Hot Beer (a Lockdown Sceptics reader – check it out).

Love in the Time of Covid

We have created some Lockdown Sceptics Forums, including a dating forum called “Love in a Covid Climate” that has attracted a bit of attention. We have a team of moderators in place to remove spam and deal with the trolls, but sometimes it takes a little while so please bear with us. You have to register to use the Forums as well as post comments below the line, but that should just be a one-time thing. Any problems, email the Lockdown Sceptics webmaster Ian Rons here.

Sharing Stories

Some of you have asked how to link to particular stories on Lockdown Sceptics so you can share it. To do that, click on the headline of a particular story and a link symbol will appear on the right-hand side of the headline. Click on the link and the URL of your page will switch to the URL of that particular story. You can then copy that URL and either email it to your friends or post it on social media. Please do share the stories.

Social Media Accounts

You can follow Lockdown Sceptics on our social media accounts which are updated throughout the day. To follow us on Facebook, click here; to follow us on Twitter, click here; to follow us on Instagram, click here; to follow us on Parler, click here; and to follow us on MeWe, click here.

Woke Gobbledegook

We’ve decided to create a permanent slot down here for woke gobbledegook. Today, it’s the news that Powell’s bookshop in Portland, Oregon has succumbed to Antifa demonstrators outside and pulled Andy Ngo’s anti-Antifa book from its shelves. Ella Whelan in the Telegraph is not impressed.

In his work, Ngo claims that Antifa protests, riots and public performances are responsible for the rising political violence in America. On the other hand, Ngo stands accused of “doxxing” Antifa activists (revealing their real names online) and stirring up Right-wing hatred of them on Twitter. 

Last year, footage of Ngo, recorded by an undercover Left-wing activist, showed him present at a discussion among the Proud Boys, the far-Right group, about an upcoming fight with Antifa. Ngo strongly denied any links to such groups, calling himself an independent journalist, but while reporting on one such protest battle, he was attacked by Antifa activists who threw a milkshake on him, egged him and beat him up.

Critics claim that the issue is a journalistic one, too, and that Ngo plays fast and loose with the facts. For an 2018 article in the Wall Street Journal, for instance, he went to Whitechapel and portrayed a council sign banning alcohol consumption as evidence of “Islamic England”. (The Tower Hamlets authorities said that they were targeting anti-social behaviour.)

But even if Antifa were right, when they allege that Ngo is protected by the Proud Boys when reporting on demonstrations (which his lawyer has described as “absolutely false”), or that his work is mean or misleading, it’s irrelevant. Trying to get his book banned is wrong. 

If we start banning books on the basis that their authors have disagreeable views or a penchant for exaggeration, half the shelves in the politics aisles would be empty.

It’s the latest in a long string of demands for censorship, and yet again the noisy activists have won.

Powell’s could do with the defiant attitude of the many radical Left-wing bookshops that went before it. It has succumbed to the pressure of a handful of young Antifa activists, brandishing their angry Tweets, and has announced that it will not stock Ngo’s book on its shelves and “will not promote it”. Whether you’re Ngo’s biggest fan or think he’s an opportunist with dodgy politics, you should be worried about these attacks. 

Bookshops are independent businesses, and can stock whatever they like – but when angry mobs call the shots about what we are and aren’t allowed to read, we have a problem.

Stop Press: A row has broken out in Southall over the decision to rename Havelock Road “Guru Nanak Road” after the founder of Sikhism. Apparently, Sir Major General Henry Havelock, whom the road was named after, is steeped in the sins of British colonialism.

Stop Press 2: Gay roles should be given to gay actors, says Russell T. Davies. Does that mean straight roles have to be given to straight actors too?

“Mask Exempt” Lanyards

We’ve created a one-stop shop down here for people who want to obtain a “Mask Exempt” lanyard/card – because wearing a mask causes them “severe distress”, for instance. You can print out and laminate a fairly standard one for free here and the Government has instructions on how to download an official “Mask Exempt” notice to put on your phone here. And if you feel obliged to wear a mask but want to signal your disapproval of having to do so, you can get a “sexy world” mask with the Swedish flag on it here.

Don’t forget to sign the petition on the UK Government’s petitions website calling for an end to mandatory face masks in shops here.

A reader has started a website that contains some useful guidance about how you can claim legal exemption. Another reader has created an Android app which displays “I am exempt from wearing a face mask” on your phone. Only 99p.

If you’re a shop owner and you want to let your customers know you will not be insisting on face masks or asking them what their reasons for exemption are, you can download a friendly sign to stick in your window here.

And here’s an excellent piece about the ineffectiveness of masks by a Roger W. Koops, who has a doctorate in organic chemistry. See also the Swiss Doctor’s thorough review of the scientific evidence here and Prof Carl Heneghan and Dr Tom Jefferson’s Spectator article about the Danish mask study here.

Stop Press: A reader who is a health sciences researcher has done a handy summary of the conclusion of the study we linked to on Tuesday: “Effects of mask-wearing on the inhalability and deposition of airborne SARS-CoV-2 aerosols in human upper airway”.

Whilst the size of the majority of respiratory particles are ≈5 to 10 micrometers, the study by Xi et al found a typical 3-layer surgical mask or a zero filtration mask (e.g cloth mask) does not prevent inhalation of SARS-CoV-2 virus particles ≤3 micrometers in size, which is equivalent to ≤3000 nanometers in size. As the size of SARS-CoV-2 virus particles are approximately only 100 nanometers, use of surgical face masks cannot protect an individual from inhaling SARS-CoV-2 virus and therefore, it is unlikely that masks protect the wearer against aerosol infection from SARS-CoV-2. Worryingly, zero filtration (cloth) masks were found to increase deposits of SARS-CoV-2 virus on the face and upper airway. Given that the Xi et al study was conducted as a tightly controlled experiment and the mask “etiquette” of the general population is sub-optimal at best, it is almost impossible to conclude that surgical masks, particularly ‘trendy’, patterned zero filtration cloth masks, have any benefit as part of the suite of Covid policy measures currently being inflicted on the public by the UK government. If Boris Johnson was actually following the science he would withdraw the mask mandate immediately. It’s particularly galling with the news that all major supermarkets are now enforcing a mask mandate for shoppers and social media appears to have gone wild with delight, with the few who object to this new ‘happy shoppers policy’, being told by the gleeful masses that they should stay at home if they are unable to wear a mask. I can only conclude on that point that we have reached new, unparalleled levels of discrimination of people with illness or disability who are unable/struggle to wear a mask.

The Great Barrington Declaration

Professor Martin Kulldorff, Professor Sunetra Gupta and Professor Jay Bhattacharya

The Great Barrington Declaration, a petition started by Professor Martin Kulldorff, Professor Sunetra Gupta and Professor Jay Bhattacharya calling for a strategy of “Focused Protection” (protect the elderly and the vulnerable and let everyone else get on with life), was launched in October and the lockdown zealots have been doing their best to discredit it ever since. If you googled it a week after launch, the top hits were three smear pieces from the Guardian, including: “Herd immunity letter signed by fake experts including ‘Dr Johnny Bananas’.” (Freddie Sayers at UnHerd warned us about this the day before it appeared.) On the bright side, Google UK has stopped shadow banning it, so the actual Declaration now tops the search results – and Toby’s Spectator piece about the attempt to suppress it is among the top hits – although discussion of it has been censored by Reddit. The reason the zealots hate it, of course, is that it gives the lie to their claim that “the science” only supports their strategy. These three scientists are every bit as eminent – more eminent – than the pro-lockdown fanatics so expect no let up in the attacks. (Wikipedia has also done a smear job.)

You can find it here. Please sign it. Now over three quarters of a million signatures.

Update: The authors of the GBD have expanded the FAQs to deal with some of the arguments and smears that have been made against their proposal. Worth reading in full.

Update 2: Many of the signatories of the Great Barrington Declaration are involved with new UK anti-lockdown campaign Recovery. Find out more and join here.

Update 3: You can watch Sunetra Gupta set out the case for “Focused Protection” here and Jay Bhattacharya make it here.

Update 4: The three GBD authors plus Prof Carl Heneghan of CEBM have launched a new website collateralglobal.org, “a global repository for research into the collateral effects of the COVID-19 lockdown measures”. Follow Collateral Global on Twitter here. Sign up to the newsletter here.

Stop Press: Dr Ramsey, PHE’s Head of Immunisation, was asked by the Science and Technology Committee what Britain should do if the vaccines proved ineffective. Her answer? Focused protection.

Judicial Reviews Against the Government

There are now so many legal cases being brought against the Government and its ministers we thought we’d include them all in one place down here.

The Simon Dolan case has now reached the end of the road. The current lead case is the Robin Tilbrook case which challenges whether the Lockdown Regulations are constitutional. You can read about that and contribute here.

Then there’s John’s Campaign which is focused specifically on care homes. Find out more about that here.

There’s the GoodLawProject and Runnymede Trust’s Judicial Review of the Government’s award of lucrative PPE contracts to various private companies. You can find out more about that here and contribute to the crowdfunder here.

And last but not least there was the Free Speech Union‘s challenge to Ofcom over its ‘coronavirus guidance’. A High Court judge refused permission for the FSU’s judicial review on December 9th and the FSU has decided not to appeal the decision because Ofcom has conceded most of the points it was making. Check here for details.

Samaritans

If you are struggling to cope, please call Samaritans for free on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email [email protected] or visit the Samaritans website to find details of your nearest branch. Samaritans is available round the clock, every single day of the year, providing a safe place for anyone struggling to cope, whoever they are, however they feel, whatever life has done to them.

Shameless Begging Bit

Thanks as always to those of you who made a donation in the past 24 hours to pay for the upkeep of this site. Doing these daily updates is hard work (although we have help from lots of people, mainly in the form of readers sending us stories and links). If you feel like donating, please click here. And if you want to flag up any stories or links we should include in future updates, email us here. (Don’t assume we’ll pick them up in the comments.)

And Finally…

“Time to go. The hills are closed.”

Comments

This week across the site:

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2.1K Comments
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chaos
chaos
5 years ago

Expenses fiddler and YouGov founder Nadhim Zahawi has every faith in Matt Wanksock. As does serial adultrer and 3 times married father of 6, 7.. 8 children Boris Johnson.

We have faith in him too said Deputy Prime Ministers Michael Gove and Stanley Johnson and Carrie Symonds.

We must continue to kill people arnd sterilise.. move along nothing to see here, they added.

chaos
chaos
5 years ago

HANDS FACE ARSE

What.jpeg
chaos
chaos
5 years ago

telegraph busy deleting comments  but all of them are so angry….

daintyteacup
daintyteacup
5 years ago

It’s ironic, isn’t it, that Tracy van den broek is so sceptical about the pharmaceutical industry, believing she can protect herself from covid through diet and exercise alone (Tracy is very overweight and considers walking so difficult that she always parks in disabled spaces or double yellows). And yet, she seems very dependant on the nhs provided pharmaceutical produced anti depressants 🤷🏼‍♀️

daintyteacup
daintyteacup
5 years ago

In response to Tracy and their experience in Costco… I contacted Costco customer services who told me those who felt unable to wear mask would be required to wear a face shield instead. Doesn’t seem overly complicated, unless you have a problem doing what you’re told when you don’t want to. Afterall, you can only get into Costco if you’ve got membership (or with a member) – presumably Tracy is ok to comply with that requirement.

TimeIsNow
TimeIsNow
5 years ago

Hi. Has the plug been pulled on Gab? I can’t access it through Safari. Can anyone recommend a different browser? Wikipedia make it sound terrible but at this point I’d like to join and make up my own mind.

kpaulsmith1463
kpaulsmith1463
5 years ago

Just going to leave this here, and allow YOU to connect the dots: Forbes: America’s Biggest Owner Of Farmland Is Now Bill Gates.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/arielshapiro/2021/01/14/americas-biggest-owner-of-farmland-is-now-bill-gates-bezos-turner/

Nobody2021
Nobody2021
5 years ago

Norway should be cancelled. Spreading disinformation like this could lead to “behaviour that leads to increased death”:

Norway: 23 Dead after Receiving Pfizer, BioNTech Vaccine
https://see.news/norway-23-dead-after-receiving-pfizer-biontech-vaccine/

The Norwegian Medicines Agency announced today, Thursday, that 23 people died after receiving the “Pfizer” and “BioNTech” vaccine against “COVID-19“, while the country’s health authorities changed recommendations for vaccinating the elderly with this vaccine.

Richard O
Richard O
5 years ago
Reply to  Nobody2021

I’ve never visited Norway, therefore it does not exist. I suggest Pfizer and their government/MSM whores adopt a similar rationale.

Andrew K
Andrew K
5 years ago
Reply to  Nobody2021

Wow and people are queuing up for this!!!

kpaulsmith1463
kpaulsmith1463
5 years ago
Reply to  Andrew K

Remember Futurama and its “Suicide Booths”? Pretty sure if someone started flogging the concept here in 2021 (and NOT 3000 years from now) certain governmental agencies would jump at the chance to buy in bulk.

awildgoose
awildgoose
5 years ago

Residents in the US state of Michigan experience the governor’s latest rug pull:

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/01/14/gretchen-whitmer-extends-michigan-restaurant-lockdown-three-week-pause-reaches-12-counting/

Anyone who thinks this will simply stop is a fool.

Nobody2021
Nobody2021
5 years ago

Just thought I’d check in on how NZ is doing as I haven’t done in a while. Found this interesting article in The Guardian. It’s typical of how this paper bends the truth to make a story.

It’s about how the jobs market has apparently grown 19% but in the actual article all I see is a growth in job vacancies being advertised. Maybe these vacancies will be filled but it’s not something I would automatically attribute to a recovery. The article actually ends saying:

The hospitality and farming sectors have reported thousands of job vacancies, while the agriculture and horticulture industries say they’re short of 40,000 workers.

Another section paints a rosy picture:

The news follows a surprise economic recovery for the country, with finance minister Grant Robertson in December reporting the economy grew 14% in the third quarter of 2020. “The economic bounce back is a result of our decision to go hard and early during the Covid-19 pandemic,” Robertson said at the time, referring to the seven-week lockdown that began in March.



Stats NZ said the third-quarter growth was the strongest in New Zealand’s modern history, coming off the back of an 11% drop in the June quarter.

… Read more »

Richard O
Richard O
5 years ago
Reply to  Nobody2021

As far as I’m concerned they can shut their borders forever. No one in or out, ever again.

Sydney is a 9 hour flight from Hong Kong, which in turn is a 13 hour flight from the UK. New Zealand is another 3+ hours flight from Sydney. Seriously?

As for our ancestors who found these places, I cannot fathom that level of seafaring endurance. What they accomplished was next to impossible.

Richard O
Richard O
5 years ago

I propose that we are slap bang in the middle of a paradigm shift. Far from it being some blissful, effortless New Age ascendance to a higher level of existence, it is absolutely excruciating and lethal agony as the old world fights with everything it has to cling on to the existing (and collapsing) order of things. Each of us is fighting this battle within ourselves, let alone in the external world. I have no idea why this is happening, but I am grateful that I am here to bear witness.

Two-Six
Two-Six
5 years ago

STAY SAFE!!!!!!!
Jeb Corliss ” Grinding The Crack”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWfph3iNC-k

Yer mental.

Stay SAFE!.jpg
karenovirus
karenovirus
5 years ago
Reply to  Two-Six

Bloomin’ covidiot, doesn’t he know there’s an awful global Pandemic on ?

eastender53
eastender53
5 years ago

Watching Gladiator for the umpteenth time. Amazing line about the immoral Boris Commodus.

‘He gives them death and still they love him’.

Art imitating life!

Dorian_Hawkmoon
Dorian_Hawkmoon
5 years ago
Reply to  eastender53

Master and Commander! Umpteenth umpteenth!

Bill H
Bill H
5 years ago

When we Brits really had something to say !

Richard O
Richard O
5 years ago
Reply to  eastender53

It’s life imitating art as well. Some of my favourite science fiction dystopian visions are now uncomfortably close. Philip K. Dick talked about “remembering the future”.

Richard O
Richard O
5 years ago
Reply to  Richard O

I think he was plugged in to something fundamental about the reality of this place like few others, and had a perspective so high that he could clearly visualise our destiny centuries ahead.

Richard O
Richard O
5 years ago
Reply to  Richard O

Reality is melting, and revealing itself to be very dark indeed, so at a time like this who better to turn to than a mind like Philip K. Dick?

Richard O
Richard O
5 years ago
Reply to  Richard O

On the contrary, his work aids my understanding. What I can remember of it anyway, I’m having trouble remembering what I did earlier today before I joined today’s comments. Whatever it was, it was unimportant.

Monty Greene
Monty Greene
5 years ago
Reply to  Richard O

We are the Horselover Fat Appreciation Society.

kpaulsmith1463
kpaulsmith1463
5 years ago
Reply to  eastender53

Recently been reading an account of the actual Commodus and, oh my, what was portrayed in that film wasn’t the HALF of it.

rockoman
rockoman
5 years ago

‘Researcher’ at OffG on test numbers :

“The numbers are generated through fraudulent, non specific, unreliable tests. Not lockdowns, restrictions, or masks.

So the differences in each nation’s figures aren’t from actual infections of any virus, current or past, but an outcome of the number of tests administered, the primers uses in the tests – some countries use different genetic sequences – and the cycle threshold (number) of the tests which determines their positive or negative outcome. The higher the cycle threshold in a country, the more positive tests.

These numbers can be directly controlled by the government through health department directives to hospitals and testing centers. Governments are also controlling the labs so they can control the outcome of the statistics generated depending on the political need.”

https://off-guardian.org/2021/01/14/watch-225/#comment-303366

Banjones
Banjones
5 years ago

Listen/watch this. (I’m surprised it hasn’t been taken down by Youtube.)
Then compare this passionate and informed woman with the characters WE have on our national stage. It makes me want to weep.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=xFntHpk1uok

Londo Mollari
Londo Mollari
5 years ago
Reply to  Banjones

Thanks for posting this – it is well worth a watch. A brave and intelligent woman.

Hattie
Hattie
5 years ago
Reply to  Banjones

Thanks for that and will share it widely. Regarding the concerns of auto-immune response, which I was aware of – got me thinking about that rather disturbing video of Gates and his wife where he states something like wait for the second one, that will make them notice, or something of that ilk. Is it possible the ‘second one’ will just be an average coronations, but a percentage of vaccinated people will have an extreme response to it, thus high deaths or severe illness across all age groups.
Regarding the issues with the placenta – ro think Whitty the other week was stating it was not contrindicated for pregnant women and young women. The man needs arresting.
Where is our equivalent to these front line doctors – what has happened to the professional integrity of our medical fraternity?

rockoman
rockoman
5 years ago

“George Orwell’s classic 1984 has rocketed up Amazon’s book charts.
The iconic story about a future dystopia reached the top of the company’s list of overall best sellers today before sinking to second (Amazon updates its bestsellers hourly). It was also selling well at competing bookseller Barnes & Noble, where it ranked second among the company’s top 100 titles.”

https://qz.com/1956937/george-orwells-1984-is-topping-amazons-best-sellers/

godowneasy
godowneasy
5 years ago
Reply to  rockoman

I often wonder what George Orwell would be thinking now – would he be saying “brilliant, I got it right”? OR “oh shit, I really wish I hadn’t written that”?

DavidC
DavidC
5 years ago
Reply to  godowneasy

Probably ‘Oh shit, I got it right’.

DavidC

Richard O
Richard O
5 years ago
Reply to  rockoman

Brave New World is much closer to the mark. I also hope this classic is performing better than it normally would.

godowneasy
godowneasy
5 years ago

Israels’ deal with Pfizer – nothing to see here obviously:

  • Just three weeks since the first Israeli citizen received the BioNTech/Pfizer jab the country has raced ahead of the rest of world with vaccinations, covering about 20 percent of its population to date.
  • Reasons behind this roaring start are fast emerging: Netanyahu revealed on January 7 that Israel struck an agreement with Pfizer to exchange citizens’ data for 10 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine, including a promise of shipments of 400,000-700,000 doses every week.
  • Under this agreement, Israel will provide details to Pfizer (as well as and the World Health Organization) about the age, gender and medical history of those receiving the jab as well as its side effects and efficacy……..
  • Netanyahu — who is hoping to get reelected in March — has also repeatedly brought up his close relationships with the chief executives of Pfizer and Moderna, suggesting his connections helped secure millions of doses. 
  • “I speak to them all the time,” Netanyahu said. He added that Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, a descendant of a Jewish family from Thessaloniki, is “a great friend” of Israel

https://www.politico.eu/article/israel-coronavirus-vaccine-success-secret/

jakehadlee
jakehadlee
5 years ago
Reply to  godowneasy

So he’s conducting medical experiments on Jewish people. Wasn’t there this other guy who did that, a while back – I forget his name. Dr something.

cambridgenative
cambridgenative
5 years ago
Reply to  jakehadlee

Are you making some sort of comparison between Netanyahu and Mengele?

There is absolutely no equivalence between Netanyahu and a demon like Mengele.

jakehadlee
jakehadlee
5 years ago

Yes. I’m making an analogous connection. I will leave to the whim of whatever standard of education you achieved to see if you can understand how that works.

cambridgenative
cambridgenative
5 years ago
Reply to  jakehadlee

Well, you are obviously a very sophisticated thinker and not a fool.

jakehadlee
jakehadlee
5 years ago

Indeed. I’m also Jewish, so by BLM logic am allowed to talk about such things

cambridgenative
cambridgenative
5 years ago
Reply to  jakehadlee

So am I.

Bill H
Bill H
5 years ago

Are you a holocaust denier ?

Or 77th ?

Read history while it is still possible .

eastender53
eastender53
5 years ago

Absolutely right. Mengele wasn’t elected by the people he murdered.

eastender53
eastender53
5 years ago
Reply to  eastender53

There can be no excuse, justification or minimising of the events of WWII. To be ‘less bad’ is still to be bad.

cambridgenative
cambridgenative
5 years ago
Reply to  eastender53

Sophistry. There is absolutely no equivalence between Netanyahu and a demon like Mengele.

jakehadlee
jakehadlee
5 years ago

It’s not about equivalence though is it. It’s about an act of disregard for life, not the extent of that act. If I steal a strawberry chew from the pick and mix, I am a thief. If I steal the crown jewels I am thief. Same crime, different level Netanyahu is a murderous bastard at the best of times, and in this particular instance he is risking the health and well-being of his people in a financially and politically driven move designed to increase his own personal standing. Disregard for human life for personal reasons is a crime he shares with Mengele – and one he is now, like Mengele, enacting on the Jewish people. Same crime, different level. But killing people is killing people.

cambridgenative
cambridgenative
5 years ago
Reply to  jakehadlee

No, Netanyahu is not risking the health and well-being of his people.

He is not comparable in any way to Mengele. A foul calumny to suggest he is.

Bill H
Bill H
5 years ago

Is that so ?

Bill H
Bill H
5 years ago

The were both of the species Homo sapiens.

That’s all you need to know.

Londo Mollari
Londo Mollari
5 years ago

I think there are a lot of parallels between the two.

Morse
Morse
5 years ago
Reply to  godowneasy

Essentially Israel is now the de facto Phase 3 study for Pfizer as opposed to the Mickey Mouse five minute, micro sample they did last year or aka Phase 2+.

Ovis
Ovis
5 years ago
Reply to  Morse

The dead Yasser Arafat must be pissing his sides.

Bill H
Bill H
5 years ago
Reply to  Morse

That’s it.

I’m sure everyone over there’s voted for it, so nothing to see.

Virus does as virus does.

Now let’s see about the vaccines.

Richard O
Richard O
5 years ago
Reply to  godowneasy

This article does not make clear whether the 20% of Israel’s population have received only the first Pfizer shot or both (and if both on schedule with the manufacturer’s recommendation after 21 days).

We will see whether this was a “success” in 5-10 years.

Bill H
Bill H
5 years ago
Reply to  Richard O

Spot on Richard.

Meanwhile,

Jab em ! Faster the better.

Cheers

Andrew K
Andrew K
5 years ago
jakehadlee
jakehadlee
5 years ago

Just had a discussion with my other half (a mild sceptic) – she was trying to get me to go to bed instead of researching more about Covid, which has admittedly become a bit of an obsession.

I just said I was just looking for some signs of hope, and she said “you’ll end up like those PCR tests – you look so hard you’ll just find what you want to find but it won’t mean anything.”

So at least she’s listened to some of what of I’ve been ranting about!

Mark
Mark
5 years ago
Reply to  jakehadlee

“you’ll end up like those PCR tests – you look so hard you’ll just find what you want to find but it won’t mean anything.”

That’s actually pretty good …

Basics
Basics
5 years ago
Reply to  jakehadlee

Get back to normal life. Important to keep normal going. Part of winning is being normal.

jakehadlee
jakehadlee
5 years ago
Reply to  Basics

I agree – I’m not as bad as I was. Just going in deep again today because I feel a change in the direction of the wind. Or maybe I just have my hopes up

Ovis
Ovis
5 years ago
Reply to  jakehadlee

Lots of people joining the local Freedom hub. People are pissed off, and recognising that if they don’t do something this will never end.

Was that the kind of thing you had in mind?

jakehadlee
jakehadlee
5 years ago
Reply to  Ovis

That – plus I think people are realising the vaccine isn’t what they thought it was, the fact that the propaganda is looking increasingly and transparently hysterical and desperate, and the fact that there seems to be a ripple of rats leaving the sinking ship from the pro-lockdown side

Richard O
Richard O
5 years ago
Reply to  jakehadlee

Keep going. Nothing could be more important. I have found reserves of mental energy that I didn’t know I had during the last 10 months. 20 hours awake out of 24 is my new normal.

Lisa (formerly) from Toronto
Lisa (formerly) from Toronto
5 years ago
Reply to  jakehadlee

Researching this has been my obsession since almost the beginning. Your OH is very wise! I’ve been disappointed many times when I thought I saw signs of things turning around. I think the natural increase in deaths from respiratory infections over the winter has set us back considerably. If there is any chance of this turning around it’ll be in the spring, but at this point I’m not laying odds.

AethelredTheReadier
AethelredTheReadier
5 years ago

I’ve just watched this video of Dr Simone Gold of America’s Frontline Doctors giving an impassioned speech about the the truth of the vaccines and the virus itself. It is well worth watching although almost an hour long but nowhere have I come across someone so eloquent, articulate, passionate and just downright honest telling us how it is. It is quite sobering to know we are in the midst of a massive lie being perpetrated against ordinary people everywhere. Anyway, please watch and share as long as it doesn’t get taken down…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=xFntHpk1uok

Andrew K
Andrew K
5 years ago

Watched the video and I have also signed the petition https://stopmedicaldiscrimination.org that aims to stop the coercion of the experiment vaccine. Also when googling her all you get is somebody who spreads misinformation about covid. Tells you all you need to know about the levels of censorship going on. Everything she quoted from the video is from the CDC, FDA and the experimental vaccine manufacturers.

Leaky
Leaky
5 years ago

Thanks for sharing. Truly shocking and only confirms my worst fears. Our Government, public health officials and MSM are fully complicit in committing crimes against humanity. The day of reckoning cannot come soon enough…

in the meantime, spread the word, sign the petition, and fight back in any way possible.

Freddy Boy
Freddy Boy
5 years ago

Awesome 👍✅

Hellonearth
Hellonearth
5 years ago

Anecdotal I know, I have heard of two elderly people who are now in intensive care after getting their second dose of the Pfizer vaccine. Has anyone else heard of anyone who has had a bad reaction after the miracle jab?. I am going to wait until I have no other choice before I succumb to the poison, hopefully sense may have prevailed before that point.

JHUNTZ
JHUNTZ
5 years ago
Reply to  Hellonearth

Not personally but I have seen lots of a anecdotal evidence on fringe “conspiracy” sites.

Londo Mollari
Londo Mollari
5 years ago
Reply to  Hellonearth

There plenty of photographs and videos on social media. Here’s one, a victim, it would seem, of the Moderna vaccine https://www.bitchute.com/video/G4clrGsuKW4e/.

AethelredTheReadier
AethelredTheReadier
5 years ago
Reply to  Hellonearth

Please watch Dr Simone Gold talking about the vaccine. It is highly illuminating and very worrying…https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=xFntHpk1uok

Basics
Basics
5 years ago
Reply to  Hellonearth

Nothing wrong with been in intensive care – they’ll send in a camera crew for a good old moan and chin wag just like ITV did this evening see https://twitter.com/itvnews/status/1349804208116133889?s=20

Obviously I have great sympathy tiwards anyone who has been psychologically attacked, taken the vaccine because of that attack and ends up needing care serious or mild. However there is only so much anger a person can write so trying a little flippancy for variation.

Richard O
Richard O
5 years ago
Reply to  Hellonearth

You always have a choice. This is the test.

Old Trout
Old Trout
5 years ago
Reply to  Hellonearth

I find this website to be the best source of the various reactions/side effects/possible deaths from vaccine. It collates a lot together from around the world and is constantly being updated:

https://hpv-vaccine-side-effects.com/covid-19-vaccine-side-effects-world-map/

TJS123
TJS123
5 years ago
Reply to  Hellonearth

If they’re elderly and in intensive care that must mean the scaremongers who say the elderly are being refused care are wrong…

Victoria
Victoria
5 years ago
Reply to  Hellonearth

Hide behind your sofa from the virus –> get the jab (cause its going to save you) –> get sick or die from the jab

Basics
Basics
5 years ago

https://twitter.com/21WIRE/status/1349814649030651911?s=20

Yawn. They get Tony Bliar involved and then we go back to the old emergency morgues being set up. Must be a favourite of Bliar a morgue. Saville liked them too.

Reuters suppyling the drone footage this time. I’m not convinced though, I feel we need to be seeing row upon row of freshly dug graves that would be more effective than a pop-up white marquee.

Nothing new under the sun when there’s a plague on.

Ceriain
Ceriain
5 years ago
Reply to  Basics

He’s right; just the same propaganda from last year. Next it will be the temporary morgue in Hyde Park again, supposedly to house 4,000 bodies.

cambridgenative
cambridgenative
5 years ago
Reply to  Ceriain

Mysteriously vanished, it seems.

Londo Mollari
Londo Mollari
5 years ago
Reply to  Basics

Interesting connection you make there. Morgues and Savile.

Richard O
Richard O
5 years ago
Reply to  Basics

Their routines are getting excruciatingly boring. Are they really this unimaginative?

Savile would have loved this pandemic. Imagine what he could have accomplished with unfettered access to medical facilities whilst no one else was permitted.

Basics
Basics
5 years ago
Reply to  Richard O

Sociopaths and psychopaths are said to have trouble with creativity.

Mark Windows the most excellent communicator on the global agenda particularly as it is at our local level has long said a featire of these oligarchs is an absolute lack of creativity.

Creativity is life, they are not.

Richard O
Richard O
5 years ago
Reply to  Basics

Yes they are lacking fundamental aspects of basic humanity. I think this is why they despise us so much. Well now we can see them for what they are as never before.

thinkaboutit
thinkaboutit
5 years ago
Reply to  Basics

Blair always looks like he’s just emerged from a crypt. A morgue would suit him.

Basics
Basics
5 years ago
Reply to  thinkaboutit

I was thinking of Iraqi morgues. But I suppose a horrific fact is most did not see a morgue.

BeBopRockSteady
BeBopRockSteady
5 years ago
Reply to  JHUNTZ

Hardly surprising. They dragnet the Q stuff but pick up all sorts of alternative media along the way.

Richard O
Richard O
5 years ago
Reply to  JHUNTZ

I think this “censorship” push will backfire. I use inverted commas because Twitter do not have a monopoly on communication platforms.

JHUNTZ
JHUNTZ
5 years ago
Reply to  Richard O

One great perk here is it creates a clear line in the sand that big tech is censoring and monopolising there is no qualms about it now. Therefore, in a debate you are either for a broad spectrum of opinions (anti big tech) or against a broad spectrum of opinions (pro big tech).

Richard O
Richard O
5 years ago
Reply to  JHUNTZ

Once again, the true nature of something has been fully revealed. I’m becoming addicted to this, it’s absolutely stunning to behold.

jakehadlee
jakehadlee
5 years ago
Reply to  JHUNTZ

My belief – and hope – is that they’ve raised their head too early. They are coming out of the woodwork because they think the battle is won, but I don’t think it is. I think this is the technocratic far left’s Pearl Harbour – and they are the Japanese. All they will have done is wake a sleeping giant.

Ovis
Ovis
5 years ago
Reply to  jakehadlee

I am a bit more pessimistic. I see it as parallel to the murder of Tiberius Gracchus. They have gone too far, and soon they will have to give ground or lose control of the situation entirely. But, give it a few years and the pattern will play out again – populist upsurge followed by rule-raping elite reaction.

After Tiberius, the same pattern played out in the career of Gaius Gracchus, and after his assassination the populares were finished. Oligarchy gave place finally to autocracy, which to most people was at least preferable to oligarchy.

Tomorrow’s news today?

John P
John P
5 years ago

This is encouraging. GP Dr Liam Fox MP criticises the BBC for “sensationalist reporting” and asks for better clarity in reporting of covid figures:

https://twitter.com/pcrclaims/status/1349777305040789505

Richard O
Richard O
5 years ago
Reply to  John P

Excellent that this kind of thinking has made its way into a Parliamentary debate. And from a former Cabinet minister as well. Not to be dismissed lightly.

swedenborg
swedenborg
5 years ago

Already a modification.Not for the too frail

https://norwaytoday.info/news/norwegian-medicines-agency-links-13-deaths-to-vaccine-side-effects-those-who-died-were-frail-and-old/

The Norwegian Medicines Agency linked 13 deaths to the corona vaccine’s side effects.
Those who died had two things in common – they were old and frail.
A total of 23 deaths have been reported in connection with the corona vaccination. 
So far, 13 of these have been assessed. 

“The reports might indicate that common side effects from mRNA vaccines, such as fever and nausea, may have led to deaths in some frail patients,” chief physician Sigurd Hortemo in the Norwegian Medicines Agency noted.
As a result, the FHI has updated the corona vaccination guide with new advice on the vaccination of frail elderly people.
“If you are very frail, you should probably not be vaccinated,” Steinar Madsen at the Norwegian Medicines Agency said at a webinar on corona vaccine for journalists on Thursday.

JHUNTZ
JHUNTZ
5 years ago
Reply to  swedenborg

Well that’s even more fucking concerning because then they put it onto the young to protect the very people that the vax was supposed to protect.

“you guys that have given up a year of your life to protect the old yins you’ll need to roll up your sleeve and pump this shit into you that we now can’t give to the old yins cause it might bump them off. Dont worry though it’s for the greater good mind. Just be a good sport jab and go.”

The obvious conclusion would be to suspend all vaccination until this risk is resolved.

BeBopRockSteady
BeBopRockSteady
5 years ago
Reply to  JHUNTZ

Exactly. How do they spin their way out of this now?

JHUNTZ
JHUNTZ
5 years ago

For any credible government this looks like a disaster, however for these despots it just allows them to lock us up longer.

This makes me even more suspicious of the government administering the second jab out with protocal. Are they worried about adverse affects on the elderly?

Richard O
Richard O
5 years ago
Reply to  JHUNTZ

I have not yet seen a definitive explanation for the delay in the second Pfizer shot. Supply chain problems? Fear of adverse reactions at a level that could not be concealed? Manoeuvring to give precedence to “our” Oxford AstraZeneca shot?

JHUNTZ
JHUNTZ
5 years ago
Reply to  Richard O

Supply chain seems to be the government line but then I thought I heard a pfizer report state that wasn’t true. Whatever the actual reason is it sure as shit isn’t what this government is telling us.

Would they need to give any preference it seems like they’ve already bought all the jabs before they’d even been produced. In my job i’d be sacked for the supply agreement they’ve agreed.

Richard O
Richard O
5 years ago
Reply to  swedenborg

Having read reports from the early Moderna trials last year, was this not an obvious risk?

Now these idiots act like no one could possibly have foreseen this.

JHUNTZ
JHUNTZ
5 years ago
Reply to  Richard O

But big pharma are our friends…. Trust the scientists deities….

swedenborg
swedenborg
5 years ago
Reply to  swedenborg

Norway has one of the lowest figures in Europe.Only 511 deaths so far of C-19.Easy to understand the hesitation having almost 5% of the deaths of C-19 already in vaccinated elderly after 2 weeks vaccination.

Charlie Blue
Charlie Blue
5 years ago

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/01/14/exclusive-almost-many-caught-covid-hospital-last-month-previous/
More than 11,000 people who went into England’s hospital with unrelated issues contracted virus during December and early January

So clearly down to the activities of the mask exempt and skeptical working in cahoots.

Ceriain
Ceriain
5 years ago
Reply to  Charlie Blue

Dangerous places, hospitals are.

Everywhere else: safe as houses… including houses.

4tvf1l.jpg
Freddy Boy
Freddy Boy
5 years ago

+ Elon Musk having a say about the inter web conglomerates !

Freddy Boy
Freddy Boy
5 years ago

Also ,Tim Berners – Lee may make his presence felt against the very thing he invented 👍

JME
JME
5 years ago

I know similar/ identical has been said before but was speaking to a neighbour earlier whilst clearing our road of snow. His mother sadly died a couple of weeks ago. She was 92 with had severe dementia, ischaemic heart disease & was admitted to hospital after breaking her hip. Whilst in hospital she gradually deteriorated & had many PCR tests, one of which was eventually positive. Unfortunately her health deteriorated & she was allowed home to die- much to the family’s dismay Covid was put on the death certificate as cause of death despite her having absolutely no related symptoms.
It really is shocking how they’re getting away with this.

Banjones
Banjones
5 years ago
Reply to  JME

That’s so sad.

But the word that stands out in what you have written is ”allowed”. Since when have we had to be ”allowed”, ”permitted”, ”granted the right” to choose the best for our most dearest and beloved?

Richard O
Richard O
5 years ago
Reply to  JME

A commenter on here earlier went through the same thing with an elderly relative but the family refused to allow Covid to be recorded as the cause of death, and it was changed accordingly.

We have fallen so far that even death itself has been politicised.

Annie
Annie
5 years ago
Reply to  Richard O

The politicisation of death is what the whole bollox is about.
Before the bollox, most people fooled themselves that death didn’t exist, at least not for them. Now, the fear of death is a political weapon that puts the atom bomb in the shade.

Freddy Boy
Freddy Boy
5 years ago

Do any of you read John Wards “ The Slog”

Richard O
Richard O
5 years ago
Reply to  Freddy Boy

Thanks for the reminder, I’ve not checked him out for a while. He was excellent throughout Brexit, and was very good on Covid when I last read his blog.

Freddy Boy
Freddy Boy
5 years ago
Reply to  Richard O

Jump on there ASAP , his latest couple of pieces tell it like it definitely is ✅

Dermot McClatchey
Dermot McClatchey
5 years ago
Reply to  Freddy Boy

Yes, I read him quite regularly- he was very promptly on the case of the Fed’s hushed-up forced intervention in the repo market liquidity crisis of 16/17 September 2019, an event which I personally think is at least one strand in the agenda that’s currently being played out.

Freddy Boy
Freddy Boy
5 years ago

👍

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